Wrappings and Trappings
by ElyzaLex
Summary: Nick's sister, Jack, comes along on the ride, and the story changes. The events of the movie are just the prologue and will be covered in Chapter 1 though some things change, from there things will switch up a bit. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything besides my OC, Jack. The Mummy (2017) wasn't my favorite movie, but it was funny and it had Sofia Boutellla in it, so yeah. Also I've had this in my head for a while now. This story will keep with a lot of the events in the movie, and a few more, and will continue on long past the movie's ending. The main storyline will begin after the conclusion of the movie. I won't be able to update this as frequently as my other story, this is a side project for me. But I'll be writing it when I have free time. Enjoy.**

 **Also, this first chapter is huge, but it's just the prologue to the 'real' story. The other chapters will almost definitely not be quite so huge.**

 **OOOOOO**

Jack didn't know how she'd gotten to this point. Alright, maybe that was a lie. She knew the _events_ that had led her here, but not the _reasons_ behind them, nor the logic that backed anything that had happened in the last few days. Nothing could logically explain her stabbing herself with a magical dagger to save her brother's life.

It had started as it always did with Nick. He'd dragged her out to the middle of the desert in Iraq on another one of his 'get rich quick' quests for treasure.

Now, Jack was all for a little treasure hunting, don't get her wrong. Ever since she'd seen tomb raider with Angelina Jolie, she'd been hooked on the idea of ancient civilizations and hidden treasures. Playing all of those Uncharted games hadn't done anything to quell the desire for adventure, either.

No, Jack's problem lies with Nick's incessant need to get them ass-deep in every kind of trouble he can find. And it was always the life-threatening kind. If it had just been some angry old man yelling at them to stop trespassing in the Louvre past open hours, Jack would have shrugged it off with a laugh. But no. People were shooting at her. _Again._

"Slip in, slip out. Just like we always do." _Ha._

Jack slid around the corner of the building, Nick and Chris on her tail.

"You son of a bitch!" Chris echoed her thoughts as a wave of bullets followed them.

Nick grabbed Chris from the ground and shoved them both forward, shooting over his shoulder at the men following them.

"Are you kidding me?" Chris yelled at him. "Slip in, slip out?!"

Jack broke down a door with her shoulder in front of them, and the three collapsed just inside the broken frame. Chris was still yelling at her brother, and Jack had never related to him as much as she did in that moment, but now wasn't the time for this.

"Stairs! Just run! Run!" Nick yelled at them, and Jack once more took the lead, sprinting up the winding stairs of the building as fast as her legs would carry her. Halfway up, Chris tripped, and Jack had to stall for a moment to drag him back up and before continuing with their retreat.

The men behind them were gaining on them, and Jack had finally reached the roof of the building – Chris was right behind her, and Nick followed in the back – when Nick pulled out a grenade and chucked it down the steps behind them.

"Grenade!" Her brother shouted, and Jack hit the deck, kicking the back of Chris's knee to bring him down with her when he didn't get down fast enough.

The explosion rocked the building, and a wave of sand and dirt that had been clinging to the walls rose up for a moment, clouding her vision, before settling back to the ground. The staircase was trashed. Nobody would be getting through it now, but that didn't stop them from shooting up at them from all around the base of the building.

They took shelter behind the small ledge that lent them a bit of cover, and Chris turned to look at Nick.

"I never wanted to come to this country!" He shouted, his voice breaking a bit with the strain, and even with the chaos all around them, Jack had to let out a laugh.

"Let me think! Just let me think." Her brother shouted back, his eyes wild and searching for some last-minute plan that he could pull out of his ass to save them from this shit show. Chris didn't let him get the chance, and a moment later he was yelling into his communicator.

"If anyone is listening, this is L-26, RMJ Hot! Request dynamic precision strike at our mark!"

 _Oh shit._ Jack turned to look at Chris, her mouth gaping open, ready to scream at him, but her brother beat her to it.

"You did not just call in an air strike!" Nick yelled incredulously. Chris stared back at him defiantly.

"Oh. Yes. I. Did." He may have been a ridiculous asshole, but Jack had to respect the guy. The moment was ruined by a wave of rubble falling on their heads from the most recent round of gunfire, and Nick jumped up, grabbing her arm and running toward the ledge to jump onto the next building. Chris brought up the rear yelling "Where are you going! Don't leave me!"

They continued running on the roofs, jumping from building to building and dodging bullets and explosions like some kind of Michael Bay movie until they reached a building with nowhere left to go. They were surrounded.

"Oh god, we're gonna die!" Chris started to get hysterical as the three of them fell to their stomachs, army crawling across the roof to peer over the ledge to find a way out.

"Just let me think, Vail!" Nick shouted back at his best friend, the stress of the situation getting to him.

"We're gonna die because of you!" Chris responded, and the hopelessness of the situation started to hit her.

They'd been in awful situations before – the kind were the odds are slim and the way out nigh impossible to reach – but this scenario seemed to take the cake. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and honestly outsmarted. There was nowhere to go, and death was closing in fast. Jack had never been much of a religious person, but at that moment, she wished she'd been paying attention when her mother had sent them both to Wednesday school. She didn't even know the words to use to pray.

"Just let me think!" Her brother didn't give up.

"Think about what, Nick? Think about what?" Chris yelled over the harsh sounds of bullets ricocheting all around them.

"I'm thinking..." he trailed off.

"What!"

"I'm thinking…"

"What?! What are you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking…we are probably gonna die here." Her brother continued at last, and Jack sagged to the side into a pile of rubble, defeated, as Nick rested his head in his hands. Chris was quiet for a moment before he started yelling.

"I knew it!" His fist hit the ground as he raged. "I KNEW IT!"

An explosion rocked the earth, and Jack was blinded. Sand flew up into her eyes, and even as she registered the screaming of the men below and the sudden lack of gunfire, she was wondering if she hadn't needed the words to get through to Him after all. Then a drone flew over their heads and reality set in.

As her view cleared, she joined her brother and Chris as they army crawled over to the edge again, this time not greeted with gunfire, but with silence and a massive crater in the ground from the air strike. Chris let out a wheeze of breath that slowly turned into laughter and screamed to the sky in triumph.

"I am still alive!"

The next second the building started to collapse beneath them, and just before they started to tumble down, Jack turned to him accusingly.

"Way to jinx it!"

They hit the dirt, and Jack thought the worst of it was finally over, but apparently Chris wasn't the only one to jinx the situation, because the ground under them started to shift and move, sliding toward the crater that was becoming more of a hole than just a divot in the ground.

"Nick!" Chris yelled as he went over the edge of the hole, reaching out toward his best friend who was too far away to reach him. A moment later, the ground settled, and Jack and Nick looked at each other with shock on their faces, waiting for the next onslaught of bad luck to hit them.

Nick got to his feet slowly, favoring his left side, and Jack followed him up. She hadn't taken that bad of a hit with the fall, so she reached the edge of the pit first in her haste. A quick look stole a relieved breath from her lungs as she made eye contact with Chris, just a foot down on a small outcropping that held him up from the drop below.

With that weight taken from her shoulder, she allowed herself a real look at what had become a gapping chasm in the earth, and her eyes went wide at about the same time she could hear a sharp gasp from her brother beside her.

Embedded in the ground was a giant statue looking Egyptian in origin. Its face glared up at them from the other side of the pit.

"Haram." Nick breathed out, and Jack didn't know if she wanted to slap him or hug him as she saw a smile creep onto his face.

OOOOOO

The chopper had just landed, carrying one pissed off superior officer. Jack followed behind the three men as her brother spouted some bullshit about hostages and going in alone to protect civilians. Chris and Jack shared a glance behind their backs, both used to it at that point, but Colonel Greenway didn't look impressed, giving a mocking sound of understanding.

"Let me run another scenario of mine." The Colonel spoke as he stared in front of them at the damage the strike had caused.

"Sir?" her brother spoke cautiously.

"One in which three assholes from long range reconnaissance – that would be you – run all over northern Iraq, just one step ahead of the enemy." He marched up to them, putting his face right up to Nick's. "Except, instead of hunting for the enemy…you hunt for antiquities. Stealing whatever isn't nailed down and selling it on the Black Market. Meanwhile, these fanatical insurgents, trying to erase 5,000 years of history, unwillingly cover your tracks." He looked over at Jack for the first time. "It's a pretty good scam."

Why did everyone always think she was the brains of the operations? Maybe sometimes she was, but she didn't get them into shit like this! This was all on Nick.

"Sergeant Morton!" A woman's voice from behind them prompted them to turn, and when they saw the owner of the voice, Jack and Chris let out identical sighs as they rolled their eyes.

Of fucking _course_ the woman Nick had slept with had been someone important. Of _course_ she was somehow connected to all of this. It had been suspicious how Nick had suddenly pulled a map out of the blue for this place.

The woman stomped up to Nick and slapped him across the face, and Jack let out a snort. The woman only paused for a second, her eyes glancing at Jack as she registered the sound, before turning back to her brother.

"Where is it?" She demanded. _Knew it. He stole the damn map._

Her brother was usually good at lying, but Nick's voice went a little high as he responded. "What? Where is what?"

Her brother and the blond woman, Jennifer, argued for a while longer, but Jack's focused was once again pulled back to the pit behind her and to the statue almost guarding the entrance. It's, or rather _her_ , mouth was open in a scream, and Jack couldn't help but wonder what was the cause behind the scream. Was it a cry for help? Or a warning?

"You've got two hours, then we're moving out." The Colonel broke her from her musings by pointing his finger in Nick's face. "You're getting in the hole with her." _What?_ _Oh shit, what has he gotten us into now?_

OOOOOO

The descension down into the hole was daunting. Jack wasn't usually afraid of the dark, but it was a long way down and she was being lowered into complete darkness.

When they hit the bottom, Jennifer immediately pulled out a recorder and started talking into it, detailing their surroundings. A few moments in, part of the wall on the side of the whole crumbled and dirt and sand rained down on Jack. She could hear her brother's frustration on her right at the intrusion. And Chris started whispering angrily to her brother, the only word she caught was 'treasure'.

Jack might not have been an archeologist, but she had always held a deep fascination with all things ancient. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, she loved it all, the older the better. Her interest forced her forward, looking at the hieroglyphics on the walls that Jennifer had been recording earlier.

"The litany of Ra." Jennifer's voice came from her left, and she turned from her inspection of the symbols to stare at the woman who was looking back with a shared glint of interest in her eyes. The only thing they really had in common was Nick, but Jack could tell that this woman shared her passion for the old and undiscovered.

"What is that, Mercury?" She heard Chris behind her. Nick was holding up his hand, catching drops of silver liquid in his hand. Jennifer stalked over to them, taking her brother's hand and studying the contents.

"The ancient Egyptians believed it weakened evil spirits." She spoke under her breath, talking more to herself than to inform any of them.

They all followed the trail of mercury that was dripping from the ceiling into holes in the ground. When they'd set up the lights and illuminated the cave before her, Jack just barely managed to stop her jaw from dropping. In the middle of the room sat a pool of mercury, metal bindings all along the edges and hanging from the ceilings. There were statues all around it, all facing the pool, and bodies of long dead people covered in jewels lay by them.

Jack could see her brother's attention, along with Chris, went to the gold and other valuables strewn about along the edges of the pool, but her interest, and the interest of the woman beside her, lie with the abnormalities of the beautiful yet morbid scene.

Jennifer started to set up a recording with the camera that the boys pulled out of the bags, but Jack was once again stopped in motion at the sight before her. She could barely hear the blond talking in her periphery, too focused on the strange draw she felt toward the pool. It was a beautiful glistening silver, the light from the cameras and their flashlights reflecting in small ripples across its surface, making it seem like a lake of metal.

Jack knew better. Some things, no matter how pretty, are the most dangerous of all. And she knew that a dip in that pool would be the death of her. But still, she couldn't help but feel that strange pull that caused her to take a few steps toward the pool, getting to the line where the chain stopped her.

"There isn't a single provision made for someone's journey into the underworld." The blond spoke, catching her attention. "No Canopic jars, no Shabtis. To be buried in a place like this…would have been a fate worse than death." She paused for a moment while noting the statues and glancing back at the pool. "Whatever's in there, those chains aren't for bringing it up…They're for holding it down." Her next words were whispered so quietly that even standing right next to her, Jack had a hard time hearing her. "This is not a tomb. It's a prison."

Her words set in with a note of finality, and suddenly everyone started moving. The Colonel's voice came in over their walkies, informing them of bogies inbound, but the blond refused to leave.

"I'm not leaving until I see what's in that pool!" She argued with Chris as he tried to convince her to get out before they were surrounded by more combatants. Nick pointed his flashlight up, following along the chain as it led around the cave and down into the pool. Jack could see that it was all that held whatever was down there in place, and her glance towards Nick confirmed his agreement.

She pulled out the pistol that was strapped to her thigh, and motioned for her brother to stand back. He put his arms up in a mocking gesture of surrender, and stepped away from the chain and she raised her pistol.

Her shot hit its mark perfectly, and the chain snapped, silencing the argument in the corner as it started to unwind, lifting something from the pool.

From the silvery depths emerged a sarcophagus, an image of a woman screaming on the front slowly uncovered as it rose, and a stream of mercury poured from her mouth. Jack stood directly in front of the sarcophagus, with her brother behind her, and she looked into the empty eyes on the front as the rest of the group gawked around the pool.

Before too long, their staring was interrupted by the scratching sound on the cave walls, and a quick flash of light showed hundreds of spiders creeping up and all around them. Jack had never been a fan of spiders, and her reaction of shivering and smacking them away from her seemed appropriate, but Chris had a gun, and he seemed to think that firing it all around the cave was a better idea.

"Stop! Chris, stop!" Jack yelled, and her brother echoed her shouts as the bullets began to ricochet around the room.

"Stop! They're just camel spiders! They're not poisonous!" Nick relayed.

"It bit me!" Chris responded, a whine in his tone, but the majority of the spiders had already vacated the area, and his argument fell short, leaving Jack to return her gaze to the pool and what had emerged from it.

The darkness in the hollow of those eyes drew her in, and Jack stared into them, entranced. She could feel the strangest sensation of hot wind on her face, and the smell of fresh, clean air all around her. The sounds of Chris still yelling in the background faded away, and for a moment Jack thought she went blind as her vision shifted.

Before her, there was a vast desert of red sand stretching out in every direction. A flash of white caught her attention, and before she could turn her head, a woman was walking toward her across the sand, her feet bare and wearing a white dress that hung off her curves. Her black hair hung loose, dancing with the wind, and Jack's gaze was dragged down her shoulders to her hands that bore intricate golden rings and were stained blue as the very tips.

It was her eyes that held Jack to the spot, though. Those deep dark browns, lined with kohl and a blue paint underneath captured her attention. Those eyes never strayed from her own, even as the woman finally reached her, reaching her arms out toward Jack's frozen form.

" _You have freed me."_ The woman's rich voice rolled down her spine in a language that Jack had never heard before, but somehow understood. A gentle hand caressed her cheek before cradling her face, keeping her gaze locked on the eyes in front of her as the woman slowly closed the distance between them until only an inch separated them. " _My Chosen."_

Their noses brushed, and Jack stayed stock still as the final distance was breached and the woman before her lightly brushed their lips together, the warmth and subtle pressure sinking into her like an embrace, and her eyes fell closed almost against her will and she sank into the feeling.

It only lasted a second before Nick was suddenly in front of her, calling out her name like he'd been doing it for a while and was started to get worried. He looked her over for a second, giving her his best 'are you okay' stare that she could barely even acknowledge in her state, before he turned back to Jennifer at her command to speak to the Colonel.

A shivery sigh left her lips as she gazed up at those dark eyes in the sarcophagus. _What the hell was that?_

OOOOOO

The sarcophagus was lifted and brought into an airplane just as the rest of them were rushed on board to escape the freak sandstorm that had come out of nowhere. Jennifer, now asking everyone to call her Jenny, was securing it into the straps herself when the soldiers around her weren't handling the 5,000-year-old 'priceless artifact of ancient times' with the proper care. Jack agreed with her honestly, they weren't even trying to be gentle.

Most of the flight was smooth sailing – Chris had fallen asleep only an hour or so in, and after flirting with Jenny for a bit, her brother, the hopeless man, followed suit. Jack herself was settling in for a bit of rest when Jenny approached the sarcophagus and started looking over the hieroglyphics on the sides.

"The hieroglyphs are definitely New Kingdom." The blond began. "It appears that the wife of King Menehptre died in childbirth, leaving a sole heir to the throne." The smell of hot sand was back, and Jack looked around confused at the pressurized airplane they were in. "A girl…" A sound reached her ears, like wood hitting wood, and Jack could almost see the sand around her again. "…called Ahmanet."

A flash of two figures fighting on the sand flew past her eyes, followed quickly by a naked woman, her back turned to Jack as she walked and knelt down. Another flash and Jack saw her slicing open her palm with a knife, the blood dripping down into a bowl of some white liquid. Then the woman again, the woman who had kissed Jack back in the tomb, her face a picture of fear as some gnarled creature approached her from behind. Another flash and the woman was on the lap of a man, their smiling faces gazing into each other's eyes.

Jack didn't even have time to feel uncomfortable about encroaching on the obviously intimate moment before her vision flashed once more, and suddenly she was there under the woman, in the place of the man. The woman above her dragged down her body slowly, a knife in one hand that she lightly scrapped down Jack's bared chest. She knew she should feel fear, but an irrational calm had taken over, and Jack knew she was experiencing the feeling of the man from before.

The woman rose above her then, the dagger pulled back in the air above her head as she spoke. " _My Chosen."_ And thrust the blade down toward Jack's beating heart.

Jack's eyes flung open as she shot up from her prone position, her heart racing and the fear in her chest finally showing itself. She took a look around the plane, trying to slow her breathing and calm herself from what had obviously been some weird nightmare.

"Corporal, what in the living hell are you doing, son?" The Colonel's voice echoed back at her, and she turned just in time to see Chris plunge a knife into the chest of their superior officer.

OOOOOO

Nick had shot Chris. Jack didn't know what the hell was going on, but her brother had been forced to shoot his best friend _twice_ before he went down, and an extra time for good measure. Something had been seriously wrong with him – the Chris they knew and loved lost somewhere as his milky eyes had gazed upon them and he swung the knife wildly.

Her brother was taking it hard, she could tell from his heavy breathing, but they weren't left much time to mourn before the plane tipped sideways. A look out the window showed an engine had gone up in smoke, and her brother raced to the front of the cabin to check on the pilots.

Jack could only hold on for dear life when, a moment later, gravity shifted, and then plane plunged from the sky.

Nick flew past her, his arm reaching out as if to grab her, but his fingers missed by inches and he latched onto Jenny instead. Jack could just barely make out him putting a parachute on her and himself before he tried once more to reach her, their fingertips just brushing before he, too, was torn from the plane.

Jack stared out the window across from her as the plane spiraled down, her screams caught her lungs as death approached.

OOOOOO

Jack woke up in the morgue.

The body bag around her restricted her movements, but she managed to tear her way out and grab the nearest lab coat to wrap around her body before she turned and saw Chris there, staring at her.

Her heart jumped in her chest, and she clutched at it as she just barely caught the screech that tried to tear its way out of her throat.

"You," Jack gulped down another large lung full of air, "You scared the shit out of me."

"We need to talk, Jack." His one sightless eye didn't seem to hinder the effect of his glare, only heighten it, and Jack looked away from the sight, taking in the other body bags around her.

"What's happening?" She asked.

Chris gave her the sad smile he always used when he was about to say something that he knew would hurt her.

"You know what's happening."

She gazed into his eyes, too shocked by her situation to let his appearance deter her question.

"Am I…dead?" The whisper slipped past her lips, and the look Chris gave her made her want to rescind the question before he could give her an answer, but she was too slow.

"Dead? No." Chris leaned toward her, and she'd never been afraid of the ridiculous goofball before, but now she leaned away from the grotesque sight. "But you're gonna wish you were."

The doors behind her slammed open, and when she turned around, she only had a moment to register the look of pure shock on her brother's face before she was swept up into a crushing hug.

OOOOOO

She was released soon after that, her brother's slightly limping gait walking beside her as they went and settled down at the first pub they could find. Jenny had tagged along, looking searchingly over Jack's face every few seconds, like she was waiting for something to happen.

Nick and Jenny talked back and forth about the crash, and some of Nick's theories barely registered to her in her zoned-out state, but she tried not to shiver at them when Jenny mentioned angering the gods. Her eyes went to the bar, searching for the tender to ask for another drink, but her gaze was pulled to Chris, looking back at her even more decayed than before and waving her over to the bathroom.

"Hey guys, I gotta hit the ladies room real quick." She mumbled out, and Nick spared her a parting glance before continuing on with Jenny, leaving Jack to stumble into the bathroom, looking around at the empty stalls before turning to the mirror clutching at the sink in startled fear as Chris was once more before her.

She struggled to keep his stare as the rotting flesh caught her attention, and she had only just glanced away when he spoke.

"Look at me. Look at my face." She met his eyes. "I'm cursed, Jack, and you're cursed too." Jack let out a heavy breath as her suspicions were confirmed, but Chris continued on. "And there's only one way to break it. You are going to do exactly what she wants, or this is gonna get a lot worse for both of us." Her silence gave him room to speak, and he didn't waste it.

"Setapai. You know what it means." _My Chosen._ The whispered words from the woman, Ahmanet, once more called forth a shiver down her spine that Jack tried to ignore. "She's got plans for you, Jack." His gaze nailed her to the ground. "You can't run. You can't escape."

She could damn well try.

Jack took off out the back door.

OOOOOO

Okay, so maybe that had been a bad idea, or no idea at all really. Jack hadn't gotten more than three feet before the figure in the alley started toward her and the rats overran her. She was just glad her brother had seen her hasty escape and followed after her. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if her vision hadn't been interrupted.

Jenny and Nick were arguing again, Nick saying he wanted to find the damn sarcophagus and prove that this was all in their heads when they opened it up and found a dead body. She didn't know what he'd said that managed to convince Jenny, but soon enough they were on their way toward the crash site.

The taxi dropped them outside an old abandoned church, and Jack started up the hill toward it, to the protest of both her brother and Jenny.

"The crash site isn't this way, where are you going?" Jenny stage whispered to her, but Jack couldn't respond, instead walking forward toward the run-down building, almost in a trance as Nick started the millionth argument with Jenny in the background.

Their words once more faded as Jack stalked ahead of them, the distance growing without anyone paying attention. Before long, Jack spotted a cathedral in front of her, the doors creaking open, and the figure of a woman standing in the doorway.

Her vision flashed again, and all Jack could see was Ahmanet standing there, reaching out toward her, beckoning her closer. " _My Chosen."_

When her sight returned, Jack was inside the cathedral, and she glance around confused at her sudden displacement. She started backing up toward the doors, when a noise to her right distracted her.

"Nick?" She called out for her brother as her feet continued backward. She hit something behind her, and Jack felt cool breath hitting the back of her neck, prompting her to spin around just as strong hands grabbed her arms, forcing her forward toward the alter.

Groaning sounds to her sides registered, and Jack saw zombie-looking creatures stumbling out of the dark around her, and she began to struggle against the arms tapping her to what she knew to be another undead behind her. Whatever strength her years of running and fighting with her brother had earned her, it was no match for four undead creatures, and they gently but firmly lifted her up, guiding her onto the alter and holding her down there.

She shifted her eyes around to each of them wildly as she tried to get out of their hold. They held her down against the cool stone without giving her any leverage to move, and soon she opened her mouth to try to let out a yell for her brother, but she was halted by a sudden weight on her lap.

As she turned, she came face to face with Ahmanet, but this wasn't the woman she'd seen in her visions. It was part of her, but Jack could tell something was missing, besides part of the flesh on her face. Eyes split by two pupils stared down at her, and cold hand pushed down on her chest, stopping her struggles.

She gazed up in shock at the decayed Egyptian princess above her as she ran her hands over her face gently, almost examining her, before those cool hands drifted down her neck, along her sides and reached the bottom of her shirt, lifting it up. When her abdomen was exposed, foreign fingers trailed along her muscles, hard earned and appreciated, digging into the crevices between her abs and mapping the surface of her skin. Ahmanet slowly lowered her head down, leaning it against her stomach as she started to speak, more of a chant than a conversation.

" _Powerful Set, I welcome you into this mortal body."_ The statue above her head was broken in a rush of falling shards, and Ahmanet grabbed something just out of her sight that she brought down over her head, letting Jack catch a glimpse of the dagger.

Ahmanet dragged the dagger down her stomach, and Jack remembered from her visions that this was the Dagger of Set. The one she had tried to use to summon Set into the mortal world in the body of her lover by…stabbing him in the chest. Jack's panic overtook her, and she didn't even register that the words she was speaking weren't in English.

" _Please don't."_ She whispered brokenly, and, surprisingly, the woman above her paused, casting curious eyes at the struggling woman pinned beneath her and catching sight of the terrified look on her face. One bandaged hand left the dagger for a moment, coming up to cradle her face as she spoke in an almost comforting tone.

" _You need not worry, My Chosen. This dagger will not kill you. You will merely welcome Set into your body, becoming his host on this plane."_ The words were spoken softly, but the context caused another wave of fear to go through Jack.

" _He is not welcome in my body. I'm not big on sharing."_ The last bit of defiance in Jack roared to the forefront, blazing through her eyes into the surprised ones staring back at her. A husky chuckle broke free from the woman above her, and at any other time, Jack would have indulged in the feeling that swept through her body at the sound, but in the current situation brought more terror.

" _You will not share, My Chosen. You are merely a host. The mighty will of Set will overpower you, and he will take control of your body."_ Ahmanet's gaze turned soft for a moment, almost pitying, before they hardened once more, and the dagger was once more brought above her head.

"That sounds an awful lot like killing!" Jack shouted as the dagger came down sharply, slicing through the air, and her eyes closed as she awaited the blow. A few moments went by, and when no blow came she opened her eyes to see Ahmanet above her, holding the dagger inches from her flesh, staring at the top of it.

 _The gem._ Part of the dagger was missing, and she couldn't complete the ritual without it. Even with the mummified woman still atop her, Jack let out a relieved breath that was interrupted by the slamming open of the cathedral doors.

"Jack!?" Nick bust through, dragging a shocked Jenny behind him.

"Nick. Run!"

OOOOOO

After the fight in the cathedral and the ambulance ride from hell, Jack ended up waking up being dragged into some secure site that no one was probably supposed to know existed. A brief introduction from Dr. Henry Jekyll later, and she was brought to her brother, waiting inside a large room with Jenny and many other people she didn't know.

In the center of the room, hooked up to various tubes that contained silver liquid flowing through them and chained down, kneeled the woman who had been haunting her for the past few days, Ahmanet.

Her head was facing down as Jack was brought in, but when she entered the room those eyes and all four pupils zeroed in on her. The sounds Ahmanet was making betrayed her pain – the little whimpers and cut off breaths – despite the look of resolve in her eyes, and Jack couldn't help but to step toward her.

Behind her, Dr. Jekyll was speaking to her brother. "Welcome to Prodigium, Mr. Morton. From the Latin: Monstrum Vel Prodigium. 'A Warning of Monsters.'"

Their conversation continued behind her, and when Nick eventually approached from the back, Jack kept her eyes on Ahmanet's pain filled ones, even as her brother stepped up beside her. "What are you doing to her?" Nick asked the question on her mind, and the cold answer he received was no comfort. They were treating her like a lab rat, or some specimen to be dissected, and that didn't just bother her.

Jenny and Dr. Jekyll argued, but Nick was still beside her, whispering quietly. "You okay, Jack?" She gave the slightest nod, her eyes still on the woman kneeling on the ground, and he turned to the Egyptian Princess as well.

Ahmanet's eyes lingered, boring into hers as Dr. Jekyll spoke to her brother, saying that he'd been selected as the vessel for the ultimate evil. That registered to Jack, and she was pulled from her trance for a moment to glance at her brother, and she saw his sharp look urging her to be quiet as he spoke with Dr. Jekyll.

He was pretending to be the cursed one, and it only took Jack a moment to figure out why. These people, whoever they were, saw Ahmanet as a threat, and Nick, as the so called 'cursed one' as the chance for the end of the world. He was protecting her, not from the woman who had been chasing her around the world to stab her with a magic knife, but from human beings who wanted to destroy her to save the world. Why are big brothers always so ridiculously protective?

Nick came back beside her for a moment, turning his back on Dr. Jekyll, and Jack's eyes return to Ahmanet's like a moth to a flame.

" _You cannot change your fate."_ She spoke, less tauntingly and more like a promise. Like Jack should be honored at the idea of some dude taking over her body and destroying the world with it. " _The curse will never be broken. My chosen was murdered. You will take his place."_ Jack understood the words perfectly, but she could hear Jenny whispering the translation into her brother's ear to her left. His jaw clenched as he looked at the woman, and Jack could see his worry for her out of the corner of her eye.

"But if you chose him, why were you going to kill him." Her brother asked, and Ahmanet's eyes drifted to him for a moment, before answering in her native tongue, and Jack got the feeling the answer was directed at her, despite the fact that everyone seemed to be watching her brother.

" _I was not going to kill him."_ There was almost a desperation in her words, a plea for understanding, and the glance of Ahmanet's eyes over to her for a split second before they returned to her brother's showed Jack who the plea was directed at. " _I was going to give him eternal life."_

Another vision entered Jack's eyes, and she could see Ahmanet in that same chamber as before, straddling that man with the knife raised above her head. " _Make him a living god."_ The vision ended, and Jack could hear Nick grinding his teeth.

"You murdered your father." He spoke.

" _I loved my father with all my heart. I only wanted his love in return._ " Ahmanet retorted.

"You killed his wife. Their child." Nick argued.

" _They were different times."_ The woman spoke again, and Jack could feel the argument fall flat. She knew she didn't have much room to judge a time period in which slaves were common, but killing a child was something that she just couldn't understand.

Before Jack could add her voice to the argument, she was swept away by another vision. The endless sand surrounded her once more, and Ahmanet, returned to her former glory, stood in front of her. " _The day of awakening will soon be upon us. You will become Set."_ The words seemed to echo all around her, and Jack wanted to argue back, but she couldn't move, couldn't speak.

All she could see was flames for a moment, and the voice continued, whispering to her. " _The world will fall to your desire."_ She could see Ahment walking before her in a stone chamber, her hand waved over a pool of dead flowers as she spoke, and they bloomed once more. " _You will have power of life over death."_

The room shifted once more, and all Jack could see was Ahmanet.

" _And…you will have me."_

The white silky robe that had just barely preserved her modesty dropped, and Ahmanet walked toward her, unashamed at her nudity, and pressed her down into a bed that appeared behind her, her palm applying just a hint of pressure before Jack caved.

" _I will be your Queen."_ Ahmanet crawled over her, her eyes once more the deep chocolate brown from her human life, and she settled over Jack, tilting her head to the side as she gazed down at her.

" _Just give in."_

Jack could faintly hear Jenny whispering her brother's name, and wondered what was happening, but she was too focused on the woman above her.

Ahmanet's hand glided up her neck and cupped her chin as she leaned down, her face stopping just before her, and her tone suddenly urgent.

" _They will kill you..."_ The princess spoke, and it seemed to change her tone entirely, a more sincere worry peering through. " _Just as they killed my chosen before you."_ Her blue stained thumb glided over Jack's bottom lip, and Ahmanet lowered further, tilting her head to the side at the last second to put her mouth near Jack's ear.

" _It burns."_ She whispered, her breath ghosting over the shell of Jack's ear, causing a shiver to go through her despite the confusion that came as she registered the words. Ahmanet reared back then, her head thrown back as she screamed.

" _It BURNS!"_

The yell tore through the trance she'd been put under, and Jack flinched back as the woman in chains started to wail. Her brother was there then, yelling at the men around them.

"Stop it!" his eyes leapt from Ahmanet to Jack. "Stop it!" And Dr. Jekyll was examining her brother like a science experiment.

"Fascinating." He whispered under his breath.

Jekyll took her brother away, and Jenny stepped up to Ahmanet, talking with her briefly, but Jack couldn't comprehend the words from her place in the back. After a moment, Jenny raced away, and Jack brought her gaze back to Ahmanet to see her eyes still on her as well.

With a deep breath to steel herself, Jack walked forward, kneeling down in front of the woman, and Ahmanet's eyes widened a bit in what Jack could only interpret as surprise.

" _Why?"_ Jack spoke in the woman's language, somehow feeling more natural than when she spoke her own, and the woman tilted her head at the question, so Jack elaborated. " _Why did you kill them?"_

Ahmanet looked almost disappointed at the question, but she answered nonetheless. " _They would have taken everything from me."_ She almost hissed the words in Jack's face. " _I was trained since birth to take the throne, and someone else would get to take it from me simply due to his being born a boy?"_

Jack paused a moment, letting the words sink in before she brought her head even closer to Ahmanet's as she spoke once more. " _Someone tried to take what was yours, so you fought with everything you had to keep it?"_ She asked the question slowly, choosing her words with care.

Ahmanet nodded, her head moving just a fraction, but Jack saw it, and she saw something in her eyes that she almost thought was relief, some kind of hope for understanding shining through. She only gave a moment for the woman to look back to her face before speaking again.

" _So, what would you do if you were me?"_

Her question seemed to shock the woman, her double eyes narrowing and a crinkle forming in her brow.

" _What would you do if someone tried to take your life away from you? If some man, no matter who, tried to take over everything you had created, saying that it was his to do with as he pleased? That you were no longer allowed to make your own choices, that he would take over?"_

Ahmanet let out a shuddered breath, gazing at the woman before her, but she did not speak an answer as they stared into each other's eyes. Jack clenched her jaw a moment, glaring at the supposed 'evil' that kneeled before her.

" _How dare you do to me what has been done to you."_

With her final parting words, she turned on her heel and sped away, feeling the gaze burning into her back as she left.

OOOOOO

The world had gone to shit.

Moments after Nick had left Jekyll's office, grabbing her arm and speeding across a ramp far above the princess, the lights started flickering and the shouting started. They just barely managed to slip out before the windows shattered around them, and a cloud of glass dust swept over the city.

Chris had led them down into the tunnels below, and after a fight with way too many undead, Jack landed herself in the situation she was in now.

Ahmanet had dragged Nick under the water, and Jack had followed after them with a desperation she'd never felt before. The woman could fuck with her head as much as she wanted, but if she hurt her brother…

She'd emerged in a cavern, the undead around her swarming. Jack had just barely managed to fight her way through, peering around a chainmail covered corpse to see Nick.

He wasn't moving.

Nick lay there in the water, his eyes closed, and Jack could feel it. She could feel the life leaving him. She could feel the moment when there was no bringing him back. No amount of drugs and hospitals and defibrillators could touch him where he was.

The fight left her, and Jack sunk to her knees, and the undead around her held her shoulders to keep her down. They didn't need to, there was nothing left for Jack to fight for. Nick had been her only family in the world, their parents long having departed. He'd been there for her through everything, and their adventures were the light of her life, especially after they found Chris and he joined their dysfunctional little family.

She was done. And Ahmanet knew it.

" _Don't blame yourself."_ The woman appeared before her, her eyes looking down at Jack with something that looked like pity. " _He was always doomed."_

The dead in the room seemed to melt away, crumbling to dust around her, but Jack's eyes never left her brother.

" _There are worse fates than death."_ Ahmanet spoke, and Jack finally managed to tear her eyes from her brother's body for a moment to look at the woman who had turned her life into the hell she was currently in.

A rage entered her then, slowly filling the gaps that had been hollowed out over time by the deaths of her friend, Chris, and now her brother. Jack's eyes fell to the dagger in Ahmanet's hand, and the woman noticed her gaze.

" _Come to me."_ She whispered softly, a plea to end this. Jack lifted herself off her knees slowly, the anger tinting the room red as she looked at Ahmanet.

She charged her.

Jack didn't have much of a plan, and the fight that ensued which was basically Ahmanet throwing her around the room showcased that, but she didn't give up. Running after the woman over and over, reaching out for anything she could hurt to make the woman regret what she'd done to her. Eventually Ahmanet seemed to grow tired of the fight, and the woman grabbed her by her throat, lifting her into the air.

" _Give in."_ The woman's voice was sweet, sugar coating a knife. " _Give in."_ this time lower, throatier, a demand instead of a question. " _When it's over, you will thank me."_ She whispered to Jack, and even struggling for air as she was, she had to respond to that.

" _Did you thank your father for casting you aside and replacing you?"_

Jack's words struck a nerve with the woman, and she was once more airborne, landing with a 'thud' against a large tombstone, curling her body around it. When she turned back over to face Ahmanet, the woman was looking down at her empty hand, and a pained grin crept over Jack's face as she surveyed the dagger now in her grip.

" _Thief."_ Ahmanet whispered, disbelieving.

Jack didn't give the woman time to regroup, and she brought the dagger down, smashing it against the floor and cracking the stone attached to it. Ahmanet let out a shocked gasp, jolting forward and stopping when Jack's glare rested back on her, a threat. She raised her fist, intent on ending it, when Ahmanet spoke.

" _Wait!_ " Not a command this time, almost begging, and Jack's hand stopped just before it reached the ground. She looked up at Ahmanet, and the woman was, for once, looking scared. " _Destroy the stone, and all is lost."_

Jack knew what she meant. It wasn't like the world wouldn't be better off without this dagger, it was that all would be lost for _her._ Ahmanet had sacrificed everything to get to this point. She'd been cast aside by her family. She'd been forced into a pact with a god intent on the destruction of the world.

She'd put everything she had on this, and Jack was about to destroy it.

Jack didn't know if Ahmanet could see what she was thinking, but she saw her obvious indecision, and slowly reached a hand out toward Jack, her words meant to persuade.

" _You will be a living god."_

Jack registered the words, and the hidden message underneath them that Ahmanet was trying to gloss over in. She could see the pure desperation in Ahmanet's eyes, and the dagger was lifted almost against her will, slowly crossing the distance between them.

Maybe she could do this. She could give Ahmanet the dagger, give the woman what she wanted, and be granted what she wanted in turn. She would have the power of life over death, as the woman said. She could bring her brother back. Hell, she could bring Chris back. Even if it meant becoming the host of all evil, that was worth it to her.

Jack halted when it was halfway there, the woman's words from earlier ringing in her head.

 _You will not share, My Chosen. You are merely a host. The mighty will of Set will overpower you, and he will take control of your body._

She gritted her teeth, fire burning in her eyes as she stared into Ahmanet's eyes. And her words were spoken aloud, but she wasn't talking to the woman.

"He can fucking try."

Jack plunged the dagger into her own chest.

 **OOOOOO**

 **Holy shit and that's it. That's the prologue. Now onto the main event.**

 **Sorry about the double posting, just had to fix some errors that were pointed out to me.**


	2. Chapter 2

The diner always cleared out at this time of night, but that suited Jack just fine.

It was 1-am in the Wade Jet diner, and Jack sat across from Nick and Chris as they looked over the map. They'd been looking for a new target since Jerusalem had left them on their asses with nothing to show.

They'd been searching for The Menorah from the Second Temple. It was apparently looted by the Romans in 70 BC and put on view in the Temple of Peace in Rome. The temple burned down in 191 after which the fate of the Menorah is uncertain. If it survived the fire, it could have been brought to Carthage by the Vandals after their Sack of Rome in 455, as mentioned by Procopius in the VIth century.

They'd found the damn temple, hoping that something had been left, but it turned out that the legends were true in this particular case. The whole lot had been looted.

They'd gone through booby traps and snake infested pits to land in a cavern that had long been emptied. Chris had thrown a fit. Jack had just tried to see it as a field trip, a little bit of adventure never hurt anyone.

Wow, okay, nevermind. It hurt tons of people.

Winding back up in the Wade Jet diner after a target didn't pan out had been something of a tradition for the trio. The diner itself was open 24 hours, which allowed them to linger far beyond appropriate hours, and that gave them a sense of privacy. The staff was friendlier than they really ought to be at the time of night that they usually showed up at.

Jack had visited during the day a few times, and the day staff was actually quite boring. There were no attempts at conversation, or jokes made to ease the dark off the backs of those weary enough to spend the night hours in the booths lining the wall. Everyone was just doing their job. There was no enjoyment.

The night hours were different.

During the night, Wanda Jet, the daughter of the illusive Wade Jet, served as both manager and server. Her beautiful dark skin and luscious hair that tumbled over her shoulders along with the gleaming open smile she bore that practically emanated warmth drew everyone in to the beautiful woman. She was often seen wandering around the diner, making sure everyone had their coffee, or that the food was alright, though many just liked to talk to her.

Jack would admit, she may have had a teensy little crush on her.

She gave off this kind of vibe. Like a friend that could keep your secrets. She was almost like the unofficial therapist of the county. Not a damn person in the whole place could wish her ill.

At that current moment of time, Wanda was hearing the tale of woe from the elderly gentleman who had settled at the bar, his limp grey hair hanging in his face, just within hearing distance of the trio, but far enough away that if they didn't particularly want to be heard, which they didn't, then they needn't worry.

"I still vote for El Dorado."

Jack looked away from Wanda and back to Chris with a grin, anticipating her brother's response to the long-overdone argument.

"Chris," Nick sighed out, hovering just on the border between amused and annoyed, "We've talked about this."

"I know, I know." Chris countered. "But just think about it. A whole _city_ of _gold_ , Nick." Chris saw Nick's completely deadpan face and turned to Jack for back-up. "Jack agrees with me. Don't you Jack."

To be completely honest, Jack didn't. The myth of El Dorado was just too farfetched in too many places for it to be a worthwhile venture for the group, despite the obvious allure. Who wouldn't want to be the one to discover El Dorado? Also, the whole gold thing was a bit persuasive. Her response, however, was solely motivated by her need to antagonize her brother.

"I mean…" She looked at Nick, holding her hands palm up in a play of innocence. "It's not the _worst_ idea he's ever had."

"Hah!" Chris shouted, drawing a moment's attention from the conversation at the bar before it resumed, Wanda being more than used to the trio's antics. "You see? She—Wait…" He looked back at Jack, a pout forming as he registered her last words.

Nick sighed, pointing an exaggerated look of betrayal at Jack, and she barely managed to keep a straight face, looking back at her brother with wide eyes like she was eagerly awaiting his reasoning for saying no to the ridiculous idea.

"Could you guys focus for a second, please?" He gave both of them a stern look, before gesturing at the notes he had pulled up from his ratty old backpack. He hadn't told them his mysterious plan yet, only called them up in the middle of the night and brought them to the diner, claiming he had a serious lead on something big.

Jack waved her hand out, gesturing for her brother to continue, and Chris grumbled for a moment before taking an aggressive sip of his coffee, prompting Jack to take a swig of her cocoa. She couldn't stand the bitterness of coffee. No matter how much sugar and cream she put in it, it always tasted like dirt to her. Plus, Wanda always makes the best cocoa.

"I've got a contact in Peru." Her brother began before pausing, looking up at them slowly, the dramatic dork. "Lima, Peru." Despite her brother's taste for the dramatic, she could almost appreciate the pause, as it left her a moment to wonder and prepare herself. But it didn't prepare her for the thought that rushed to the forefront of her mind.

"Lima." Jack whispered, leaning in close to her brother, with a skeptical, not yet hopeful, gleam in her eye. "As in…?"

Nick caught her unspoken thought and grinned, nodding, causing Jack to slump back in her seat, stupefied. Chris was looking back and forth between the two siblings, more than a little confused.

"I'm lost. Am I missing something here?" Chris asked.

"I'd say." Jack mumbled, bringing the cocoa to her lips.

"Chris," Nick began, "Have you ever heard of the lost Treasure of Lima?"

"Why, no Nick, I haven't. Care to explain for those of us who joined the army instead of going to college?" Chris replied sarcastically.

"He dropped out." Jack mumbled then ignored the narrowed eyes of her brother before he turned back to Chris.

"Spain had controlled Lima since the 16th century, when it defeated the Incas." Her brother started the tale in a low tone, like this wasn't public knowledge. "In the centuries that followed, the Catholic Church gathered a huge treasure in Lima. In the early 19th century, Spain began to have difficulties with its colonies due to wars of independence in South America. Lima was no exception, and in 1820 the city came under heavy pressure and finally had to be evacuated. In 1820, Lima was on the edge of revolt. As a preventative measure, the Viceroy of Lima decided to transport the city's fabulous wealth to Mexico for safekeeping. The treasures included jeweled stones, candlesticks, and two life-size solid gold statues of Mary holding the baby Jesus. In all, the treasure was valued at between $12 million and $60 million."

Chris interrupted. "I don't know if I want to go to Peru for a slight possibility of $12 million split four ways, guys. We usually end up getting shot at, and I don't know if it's worth—"

"A Newfoundlander, Captain William Thompson, commander of the Mary Dear, was put in charge of transporting the riches to Mexico." Nick continued as if Chris hadn't spoken. "Thompson and his crew proved to be unable to resist the temptation; they turned pirate, cut the throats of the guards and accompanying priests, and threw their bodies overboard.

"Thompson headed for Cocos Island, off the coast of present-day Costa Rica, where he and his men allegedly buried the treasure. They then decided to split up and lay low until the situation had calmed down, at which time they would reconvene to divvy up the spoils.

However, the Mary Dear was captured, and the crew went on trial for piracy. All but Thompson and his first mate were hanged. To save their lives, the two agreed to lead the Spanish to the stolen treasure. They took them as far as the Cocos Islands and then managed to escape into the jungle. Thompson, the first mate, and the treasure were never seen again, though it is believed that Thompson returned to Newfoundland with the aid of a whaling ship." Nick concluded in a whispered tone, making Chris have to lean in to catch the end.

"Okay," Chris spoke slowly, "So, not Peru. Costa Rica. Better." His face scrunched up as he looked between the siblings. "But I still don't know if I want to look for $12 million."

"$208 million." Jack gave her two cents.

Chris's eyes shifted to focus on her, his gaze suddenly much more interested. "What now?"

"It was estimated between $12 million and $60 million in the 1800s. You know how the value of money increases over time?" Jack asked, trying to contain her smile as Chris's eyes lit up like a child at Christmas.

There was a small pause in the conversation that Chris broke as he took a large swig of his nasty coffee, jumping from his seat. "I'm in." Then he headed to the bathroom. Apparently, that was the end of that conversation.

Jack looked over to Nick, and the two exchanged an equally amused and exasperated look before dissolving into laughter. Nick trailed off first, watching his sister's laughter start to die down with a strangely heavy look on his face.

"Are you going to be alright with this?" Nick asked.

"What do you mean?" Jack responded, despite knowing fully well what he was talking about. She really didn't want to have this conversation again.

"This will be our first big hunt since…you know." Nick glanced around the diner as he whispered.

"Since I got possessed by the ancient Egyptian god of the desert, storms, chaos, and violence? Since that?" Jack spoke in a normal tone, not bothering to whisper, and Nick ducked his head as he looked around the near empty diner before concluding that no one was listening.

"Yeah, since that. I thought he was just the god of death." Nick said, his words implying a question.

"I googled him." Jack answered. She'd done far more than google him, but Nick didn't need to know how many hours she'd spent going over any piece of information she could find on the deity. He was a bit of a worrier. "I'll be fine, Nick. Everything's been pretty normal."

"Really? Nothing since London?" Nick's tone was serious, and Jack sighed, knowing there was no way out of this conversation now.

"No, nothing. After everything there, it's like it's just," Jack sighed, looking for the right word to explain the feeling to her brother, "dormant." At Nick's questioning look, she continued. "I can sort of feel it, somewhere in my chest, you know? It's not like it's gone. It's just…out of reach."

"Really?" he repeated, looking her over with concern.

"Really, Nick. I've tried to use it again, but I just can't." Jack said, and the strange mix of relief and frustration that accompanied the thought didn't take her by surprise. She'd grown used to feeling happy that she hadn't been too badly affected, while simultaneously reaching for something just out of sight.

She was just glad this was the worst of it.

OOOOOO

A cold feeling washed over Jack, all-encompassing and dark.

It felt like freezing fingers were clawing at her, scratching around inside her body and looking for purchase.

Flashes of endless sandy dunes and a dagger dripping with blood zoomed past her eyes, accompanying the feeling of drowning that was slowly taking her over.

Jack gasped for breath, nonexistent liquid in her lungs choking her, and she seized on the ground, overcome. A voice was whispering in her head, so softly that in normal circumstances she'd have to strain to hear it, but now it was the only thing she could hear, booming through her mind.

" **I Accept the Sacrifice."**

The chilling words did little to assuage her fears, and Jack shook as those scratching hands hooked into her, filling her up with that cold feeling, taking her over. The power washed over her, consuming and terrifying, and she clawed at the stone floor below her, trying to hold onto something to keep her from being swept away with the tide.

She was fighting. She was trying. Jack was putting everything she had into ridding herself of that awful voice as it crept over her, pulling on her limbs like a marionette, wrapping around her throat in a vice.

It was too strong.

Jack was trying to fight the god of death and evil. She'd always been a bit headstrong, but she wasn't stupid. She knew she wouldn't win this fight, but she was going to give him hell on her way out.

She tried to suppress the aching in her bones, the cold that took hold there like a rot. She tried to hold him off for as long as she could as she crawled over to her brother's body, the heaviness of the new presence inside her weighing her down, and the dagger dragging on the stone.

She could feel the cold inside her fighting back. It wasn't much of a struggle, the darkness looming on the horizon seemed more amused at her plight than anything, but she continued to hold on.

As she reached Nick, she lay beside him, and looked inside herself at the darkness. She peered behind the film of life and saw those horrible eyes looking back at her.

And she begged.

She begged Set for this one thing. Just bring her brother back. He could have her body. He could have her mind. He could have her soul. Just bring her brother back to her.

The god laughed in her face.

" **You presume I do not already own everything that you are. All returns to the dust, in the end. All belongs to me. You have nothing to bargain with."**

That dark chuckle once more tore through her, bringing with it a new round of seizures that shook Jack's body. She sobbed into the water next to her brother, and the darkness loomed over her like a living shadow, smiling cruelly.

He wouldn't help her.

The breath rushed out of her, her eyes falling shut as she gave in, letting the tidal wave of cold drown her. The last thing she saw was her brother's face, unseeing eyes peering up at the ceiling.

 _Do you remember when mom died?_

Her eyes shot open, Nick's voice reaching her at the bottom of the darkness. She sat in an empty space, trapped in her mind, with her arms wrapped around her knees, curled into the smallest shape she could manage.

She did. She remembered it vividly.

The darkness shifted around her, and a rain fell around her huddled form as she watched her memory play out. Jack had been just 12 when it happened, Nick was 16. He had found their mother laying face down in a puddle of saliva, her eyes wide open. The needle next to her emptied of its caustic contents.

Nick had shielded her from it. He had pulled her behind him and protected her from the sight, as he did every day after that for the rest of their lives. Nick had always been the one to take care of Jack. The protector, the big brother.

And now that he needed her help, Jack was going to just give up?

Jack ran from the scene, not turning to hide from the memory, but heading for another hard moment, this one much more present. She clawed her way back into her own mind. This time, she didn't just push that creeping darkness down, she burned it. She set it on fire with her rage as she tore the disease that was Set from her bones.

Her brother needed her. Set couldn't have her.

That dark voice came back, screaming at her as she tore it away from her, as she destroyed every part of Set that was trying to take over and replaced it with herself again, as she became whole. She couldn't stamp out the power, that stuck to her soul, weaving its darkness in and out like it had latched on and melded so intimately with everything that she was, that tearing it away would destroy her.

But she could get rid of the leech that accompanied it.

Jack's eyes opened, all four pupils shrinking and growing in time with her labored breaths as she found every last shred inside of her that was Set and crushed it. The last roar of defiance echoing through her head as she stamped him out, and then, all was still.

Jack breathed, expelling the dust in her lungs and staring up at the ceiling as her green eyes returned to their normal state. After a moment of silence, the stillness in the room draining all noise, laughter bubbled from her throat.

She'd done it. She'd gone toe to toe with the will of a god, and she'd come out on top. The so called 'all powerful Set' had tried to latch onto her soul and wipe away all that was Jack, and she'd pushed back. Fighting with gnashing teeth and claws, Set had been burned from inside her, leaving only the power behind, a constant hum, pulsing just behind her eyelids and at the tips of her fingers.

" _NO!"_ The strangled cry brought Jack back to the present, and she turned her head, taking in the room with new eyes. Ahmanet was backing away from her, eyes wide and fearful, and the markings all over her body started to fade. Her eyes went back to the chocolate hue that she'd had as a human before shifting back to double amber.

She doubled over, her body seeming to fight itself for a moment, her human and her _otherness_ waging a war inside her and through the marks on her skin. Her eyes never left Jack through the process, and the shifting color of her skin didn't stop the stunned words from slipping past her lips.

" _This is not possible. He is a god! You can't win this fight! You're just a girl."_ Ahmanet was nearly shrieking by the end of her tirade, but Jack couldn't find it within herself to yell her response. The changing process inside her showed her Ahmanet's past. She knew what it was like inside the woman's mind, and she couldn't hate her. She almost pitied her.

" _So were you."_ Jack spoke, her words soft as she gazed upon the broken girl who just wanted to be worth something. Many people want power. Many people kill for power and for wealth and for so many things that just aren't worth it, and Jack couldn't single Ahmanet out as some villain. She was just so…human.

Ahmanet stared unblinking at Jack, no doubt feeling the new power inside her. Set's power. Her power. She looked like a woman just waiting for the noose to slip around her neck. Jack shook her head sadly.

" _Go."_ She ordered.

Ahmanet barely flinched at the word, shuffling a step back.

" _Go now, before I change my mind."_ Jack growled the words, another voice layering over her own, giving the words more power than she meant.

She turned her head back to her brother in the pool, and she could feel when Ahmanet left, her presence strangely absent and noticed in the back of Jack's mind. Jack grabbed the hilt of the dagger that was still embedded in her chest, pulling it out without a glance and tossing it to the side, the stone shattering on impact with the ground, as she knelt at her brother's side.

Her knees sloshed in the water as she grabbed at his shirt, whispering pleadingly.

"Nick. Oh god wake up Nick. Nick please." Now unwatched by Ahmanet, Jack let the tears she'd been holding in run down her face as she shook her brother. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Nick." Jack sobbed over her brother's body, hands clutching at the front of his shirt as she buried her face into his side. "Please. I don't…I don't know what I'm doing, Nick. Please wake up."

The power swirled inside her, filling her from the tips of her toes and fingers to the ends of her hair and she focused on it, pulling as hard as she could at the darkness that was now hers.

"Please, Nick." A burning went through her, and she could see Nick laying there, her vision doubling as she saw him in the pool, and on the sands of the desert. She reached out for him with her mind, pulling at his sleeves. She grabbed him in the desert, not his body, but the essence of what Nick was, and threw it back into his body. Her eyes once more split, and she could feel her teeth growing, almost puncturing her lip as she grabbed the collar of her brother's shirt, yanking him up in front of her face.

"JUST WAKE UP."

Nick's eyes shot open.

OOOOOO

"Alright, let's blow this popsicle stand!" Chris broke her from the memory's hold as he returned from the bathroom.

Jack looked over at the goofball before returning her gaze to her brother to find he was still looking at her, just breaking his gaze as he spoke.

"Alright, I can book us a flight to Costa Rica soon, let's just hang tight until then. Quietly." He directed that word at Chris. "We can't afford to draw any attention." Jack shivered as she remembered the reason the group of them had to leave London.

Prodigium was still looking for them.

"Just shoot me a text when it's time to go." With that, and a hug to Jack, Chris wandered out the door of the diner.

"I'm guessing he forgot that I'm his ride." Nick chuckled to himself before standing up and gathering his stuff. He dropped a few bills on the counter to pay for their coffees and cocoa, and Jack wasn't one to say no to a free cocoa, so she let him. He smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder before following after Chris.

Jack huddled down, now alone at her booth, and cupped both of her hands around the warm mug in front of her as she let the quiet of the night calm her.

They'd been living out of a two-bedroom apartment in New York since they'd left London. New York was a big city, and it was easy to get lost among the crowd here. Prodigium wasn't exactly dedicating all their resourced toward finding them, but it was enough for them to be a bit cautious. Nick had told Jack what Dr. Jekyll was going to do to him when he thought that Nick was the chosen of Ahmanet.

The name sent a shiver down her spine, and Jack did her absolute best to ignore it.

She was shaken from her musings as another cup of cocoa was set in front of her, followed by a body slipping into the booth opposite from her. Wanda smiled warmly and gestured with a nod of her head to the full cocoa, slowly slipping her hands under Jack's and taking the now empty mug she'd been nursing.

"It looked like you could use another." The words caused a small blush to take root on Jack's face, and she ducked her head in thanks to the woman.

"Can never have enough chocolate." Jack said, not joking. Wanda shook her head with a chuckle.

"You have an addiction."

"Maybe," Jack acquiesced, "But on the list of things to be addicted to, chocolate's not so bad."

Wanda tilted her head, a playful look in her eyes. "Fair enough. Maybe I should be glad that of all the 24-hour diners with hot chocolate, you're addicted to this one. You're becoming one of our most loyal customers."

"Oh, it's not for the chocolate, I assure you." She let the words sit for a moment, testing the waters. When she saw the grin growing on Wanda's face, she continued. "I come here to see your father."

The grin dropped into a look of baffled amusement. "My father?"

"Of course," Jack responded, keeping her serious tone. "I have to meet the mysterious man that no one has ever seen, who named a diner after himself."

Wanda laughed. "It was a bit pretentious, wasn't it?" She asked, a gleam in her eyes.

Jack responded by holding her hand up, her thumb and index finger held just barely apart. Wanda let out another musical laugh before shaking her head and stepping out of the booth at the sound of another customer entering the diner. She gave Jack on last look over her shoulder.

"Have a nice night, Jacklyn."


	3. Chapter 3

The trip was already off to a rocky start.

The second the trio had laid eyes on the rickety plane that would transport them to Costa Rica, Jack and Chris had both turned around without a word, only being stopped by the hand grabbing the backs of their shirts as Nick pulled them forward.

"Not getting cold feet now, are you?" Nick laughed as he dragged them toward the open door, only dropping them when he started to put their bags in.

"Last time I was on an airplane I _died._ " Chris responded, and Nick faltered for a second before stowing the last bag and climbing in.

"They say the best way of getting over your fear is by facing it head on." Nick threw back at them as he took his seat, the other two deciding to sit opposite him in the small space.

"Oh? Do _they_ say that? Who's _they_?" Chris asked, voice going through several octaves.

"You know…" Nick gestured vaguely, "psychologists, or something."

"Phycologists or something." Chris echoed, deadpan.

"Yeah, maybe stick to treasure hunting, Nick. It's what you do best." Her brother only shrugged his shoulder at her, and she laughed before settling more comfortably into her seat. It would be a long ride, and Jack had plans to be sleeping for at least three-quarters of it. It wouldn't be bearable otherwise. "Now if you don't mind, or even if you do, I'm going to catch up on sleep. I'd suggest you two do the same." The boys exchanged looks before nodding. No matter how close of friends they were, spending that much time in such close quarters with anyone will start to drive anyone a little close to the edge.

The pilot cleared the wings before setting up in the cockpit, and Jack was just putting her headphones in as the co-pilot climbed in, giving them the 'all clear'. From there all she heard was the muffled whine of the engines and the rumble of the airplane as it began taking off. The sounds of soft music pulling at her eyelids, Jack tilted her head back into the chair and let sleep take her.

OOOOO

Jack stood at the entrance to a room.

All around her the walls and floor were made of heavy looking tanned stone, smooth and clean. The walls held paintings, or maybe carvings, depicting stories alongside hieroglyphics. The only light in the room came from small fires lit in braziers along the walls, and one near the middle of the room on the floor, casting long shadows along the walls and ceiling in the dim light. In front of the brazier on the floor there was a small raised platform that held a bent figure.

She was knocked from her stupor by the expanse of exposed skin on the back of the figure, a woman by the looks of it, and Jack was struck with a strange sense of déjà vu. Her feet moved without her consciously telling them to, taking a few slow steps into the room. She wasn't making much noise at all, her bare feet feeling lighter than normal on the cool stone, but the back of the woman on the platform tensed anyway, curving further into herself.

Sound from above her drew her gaze up as she continued forward, and Jack's eyes passed over the strung-up birds, either ravens or crows, that hung from the ceiling. They cawed and flapped their wings, many of which looked broken in several places or missing feathers, and still the woman didn't move. She only arched forward further, placing her forehead on the platform she kneeled on, her muscles trembling as Jack closed in.

She knew she should be more confused or concerned, but all Jack felt was a foreign cold that spread through her chest, numbing her to anything but a strange muted satisfaction.

She closed the distance between her and the woman, coming up right behind her. She was within touching distance, and when Jack reached her hand out towards the woman, for a moment she thought that was her goal. It wasn't until she stopped moving, and the woman's shivering back started to straighten out, that she realized she'd stopped quite a bit shy, and that her hand wasn't empty. She looked down at her own hand, gripped loosely around the Dagger of Set that she still stored in the bottom of her backpack, and saw that it somehow still held the blood red gem on the end. It was uncracked, perfectly restored from where it had shattered into so many red particles of dust when she'd pulled it from her own body.

Her eyes were so focused on the dagger, she didn't register the hand that reached so slowly up toward her until it nearly touched the dagger, hesitating for a moment. In that second of pause, Jack glimpsed the side of the woman's face, slightly upturned to see the dagger, but not enough to look back at Jack, and the familiar line of a sharp jaw and high, aristocratic cheekbones had her gripping the handle in a sudden bout of intensity that had her knuckles turning white just in time for Ahmanet to wrap her fingers around the space between Jack's and the blade.

The woman let out a sharp cry, rearing back in what looked like pain before falling forward. Her back arched, shoulder blades bunching together before releasing again as small designs started to cover her body, filling up the space on her warm skin with black ink. Jack felt a deeper chill growing in her chest that left her in a rush, and she regained control of her body, taking a step back with a gasp.

Before she could put any kind of real space between her and the mummy that had hunted her, a hand wrapped around her wrist so tight she knew it would bruise, yanking her forward that step that she'd retreated.

Jack looked up from the stone floor and into those doubled amber eyes, reminding her so much of a spider, before they switched to a deep brown - so dark it was nearly black - and back to amber once again.

" _They are watching you now, my chosen."_

OOOOO

Jack woke up to the feeling of the plane rolling onto the landing strip, clutching at her chest as her heart tried to escape from her ribcage. Her brother sat across from her, his eyes glued to the window, but a quick glance to her left showed her that she'd caught Chris's attention.

She gave him a weak grin, "Still better than the last time I fell asleep on an airplane."

He snorted once before nodding, a look of understanding on his face as he, too, turned to the window. He knew better than to ask.

There was a little bit of a welcoming party waiting for them on the tarmac. By welcoming party, Jack meant a shady looking guy in hand-me-down suit that eyed her brother's watch as they shook hands. His slicked back hair was, Jack thought, meant to be charming, but instead it gave him a greasy look that only made her warier.

"Come, come." The man spoke in heavily accented English, though she couldn't place the accent. He gestured toward a decent looking van, making his own way over and opening the doors for them. Jack just gave him a look before turning to Nick.

"This is Mr. Keshin. He's the one that sent me the tip. He's going to take us to the boat we've chartered." Her brother explained.

"His van has no windows." Chris pointed out. "I was always told not to get into windowless vans with strangers."

"Shut up, Vail." Her brother responded without looking at him, hopping into the front seat of the van and swinging his bag onto his lap. Jack followed his example with a sigh, settling into the back of the van with a grumbling Chris.

The ride was spent with Mr. Greasy giving them a brief history of the island, as well as not-so-subtly advertising his own services, should they need a guide. Jack just barely managed not to roll her eyes. Before too long they were at the dock where a rusty looking fishing boat was waiting for them.

"That's a safety hazard." Jack muttered, hearing Chris snort in response.

"That's our ride to the next island." Nick came up behind them as he finished talking to Mr. Greasy, who was walking back to his windowless van with a heavier pocket. "The actual treasure was long suspected to not have been on the mainland of Costa Rica." His voice dropped a bit as he hopped into the boat, dropping his bag on the floor before he started the process of getting the boat going. "An island close by, albeit a small one that hardly counts as an 'island', has a cave. Mr. Keshin was informed of some incident regarding fireworks in an enclosed area starting a small cave-in."

"Mr. Keshin?" Chris asked her.

"Van guy." She responded.

Chris nodded, recognition in his eyes. "Right, forgot. That wasn't what I was calling him in my head."

Nick continued without minding their conversation, only barely hiding his eyeroll from Chris. Jack saw it though, and she threw her bag at him as she hopped down into the boat, followed by Chris.

"Apparently, the cave-in also revealed a sort of underwater entrance in the cave. That's where we'll be going." Nick opened a hatch in the bottom of the boat to reveal a storage area holding a few sets of scuba diving gear. He grinned up at them once he noticed their grimaces.

"We're swimming." Jack phrased it as a statement, and yet there was an implied question of her brother's sanity if he thought she was going scuba diving again.

Her brother had gotten the boat started and was pushing them away from the dock before he jumped behind the wheel, starting the engine.

"Nick." He turned the wheel to the left, steering the boat out onto open waters. "Nick, don't ignore me."

He sighed, turning to look at her, "It'll just be a quick swim, Jack. We go in, see if anything's down there, come back out. I'll check the gear." She stared at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes before she huffed and looked out at the water. Apart from the wake of their boat, the waters were calm and clear.

It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky.

OOOOOO

She was going to kill her brother.

Jack swam as fast as she could as large chunks of rock fell down around her. A pillar on her right was collapsing in her path, and she just barely managed to swim under it before it blocked her line of sight on her brother and Chris, swimming at full speed ahead of her.

The water was dark, but the lights built into her gear lit up the path ahead, crumbling around her as it was. She watched Chris get caught on a falling rock, this one looking big enough to drag him down, and she shot over toward him, grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the weight of it.

The trio sped forward, and the water slowly started to turn to a lighter blue as they ducked under the collapsing ceiling of the tunnels to discover that the only way to go was up. Jack pushed upward, Chris making his way ahead of her and her brother was far in front of him when she got caught, her body jerking against her gear. Looking down, she saw part of her tank was crushed under the rocks and the air inside was leaking steadily into the water. With frustrated movements, Jack unclipped herself from the harness, shoving off the rocks and toward the light without the burden of her tank.

She was moving faster, but her lungs were complaining by the time she caught up with Nick, and the tunnel was ending right in front of them. She touched rock, and the trio discovered that the light had come from a hole the size of a small animal that had broken open. Jack scrambled at the rocks, her fingertips finding purchase along cracks.

Her vision was going dark around her. She could feel her brother pulling at her shoulder, but she ignored him.

She needed to get out.

Jack let out a scream of frustration that was muffled by the water that swallowed up what little air she had left as she dug her fingers _into_ the rocks. With a strength she didn't know she had, Jack pulled at either side of the small hole, tearing through rocks like butter and making a space large enough for her to fit through.

With fading vision, Jack shot through the opening, reaching for the light that filled her vision, and she breached the surface.

Her harsh, heaving breath was the only sound in the chamber she emerged into. Dark spots filled her vision as she pulled herself up onto the solid stone in front of her. Two splashes from behind indicated the arrival of the others.

She couldn't bring herself to acknowledge them as she flipped onto her back, panting, with her arms limp at her sides. Chris flopped down beside her, her brother following suit on the other side. She turned her head, glaring directly into the eyes that were already focused on her.

"Hey, don't look at me like that." He held his hands up placatingly. "I checked the gear. How was I supposed to predict this?"

"You're right." She spoke as deadpan as she could in her condition. "How could we possibly have considered that there might be a cave-in at the location of a recent cave-in."

"Hey guys?" She heard Chris get up from his spot beside her.

"This is just as much your fault as it is mine. You could've thought about the cave-in, too."

"My fault?" Her voice raised in pitch. "I didn't want to do this in the first place!"

"Guys?"

"And what was that, back there?" Her brother asked, his eyes more concerned than angry. "Your eyes changed! And the rocks? That wasn't normal, Jack."

"Hate to break it to you, Nick, but nothing about any of us is normal anymore." She joked, not managing to wipe the concern off his face.

"Guys!" Chris yelled, gaining their attention.

As Jack turned to her friend, she let out a gasp as she took in what he was looking at. From the ground to where the wall meets the ceiling, images covered the stone. Enormous paintings of menacing creatures surrounded by smaller figures stretched from one end of a long stone wall to the other. They each held some kind of weapon pointed at a monster – some wielding spears, others swords or even slings in a couple cases – and some held manacles or books in their spare hands.

Jack leapt up. She may look entirely scholarly, more borderline ragged, but it was her near insatiable curiosity that drove her into this line of work. That and her persuasive and danger-prone brother.

The wall was one side of a long hallway that they'd broken through the floor of and it continued in both directions further than her eyes could see in the dark. Like he'd read her mind, Nick came up beside her with a cracked glow stick – the heavy-duty kind that she knew were much more expensive but lasted longer.

She let out a whistle, "Don't know what kinda luck this is, but I'm hoping it's not bad."

"When's it ever good?" Chris snorted. "Take one look around and tell me this place isn't going to be booby-trapped."

She sighed, rubbing her hand down her face, "It's always booby-trapped."

"Just walk slow." Nick led the charge, picking a direction – seemingly at random – and stalking forward. Jack kept her eyes on the walls as they walked, hoping her brother would warn her _before_ he triggered whatever spring trap or rolling ball that chased them down this hallway.

"Pretty common theme." She mused tracing over another battle scene with her finger before wiping the heavy layer of dust on her drying pants. "Big monster, lots of little dudes tryin' to kill it."

"Any monster in specific we should be wary of?" Chris asked, and a year earlier she would've laughed. This time she studied the paintings closely.

"Well, I'm not particularly fond of the idea of going up against that one." She pointed to the monster they passed. This one had two heads and more eyes than fingers. The six gaping mouths weren't especially inviting, either. Chris scanned it with a shudder.

"Body!"

Jack turned to her brother's shout, spotting him crouching close to a curled up heap of rags, which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be the withered skin of a man. He was propped up against the wall, the leather armor he wore so stiff it was keeping him upright. Skeletal hands, covered in skin that stretched too tight, clutched something between them.

"What's he got?" she asked as joined her brother.

"Seriously, you guys aren't even a little suspicious of mummies after all that?" Chris stayed back from the two, the knife strapped to his waist pulled from its sheath.

Nick yanked on the fingers, and a sickening snapping sound echoed down the hallway. "Some kind of journal, I think. Could be exactly what we need."

"That's so gross." Chris made heaving sounds as he turned away. Both siblings ignored him.

Nick held the small leather-bound journal in his hands, gently flipping through the pages. From her position, Jack saw mostly Spanish writing. She hoped that meant they were on the right track. The small frown on Nick's face told her otherwise. It grew more pronounced the further he got through the book.

"What is it?"

He glanced at her, "Mostly gibberish. The beginning was promising, mostly talk of the journey ahead. He seemed to be one of the crew of _Mary Dear_ ; he says here that he was told to stay behind by Thompson to guard the treasure, but it doesn't say where it is. Mostly there's vague talk about snakes – which I know you don't want to hear – and some kind of amulet." He pointed to a passage. "Right here, _collar de locura."_

"'Necklace of madness?' Sounds like the bad kind of promising." She examined the page. The necklace in question was illustrated in a crude manner as if someone knew they weren't an artist but gave it a shot anyway. It looked big and old, a necklace people wore once to show how much money they had then put in a safe somewhere. The design on it looked somewhat familiar as well. Jack scowled, trying to place it.

Something deep inside her flinched, and she whirled around, eyes scanning the darkness around them. Her heartbeat pounded, and her ears strained to hear over it. Something was watching them. She reached out a hand, placing it calmly on her brother's shoulder.

"Nick. We gotta move." Her voice came out surprisingly stable, but both boys stared at her with confusion. "Now."

"What?" Chris started looking around, eyes wide. "Why? What's happening? Is it giant spiders again because I really can't do that again."

"Jack." Her brother searched her face for answers she didn't have.

"Look, I just have a feeling—" She tried to explain, but a grinding sound interrupted her. Behind them, Chris looked up from where he'd just stepped onto a tile on the ground that was currently raising back into its original position.

He groaned, "Fucking booby—"

Both sections of the hallway behind them slammed together. The walls shook with the force, and the sound nearly deafened Jack.

"OH MY GOD!" Chris started sprinting down the hallway, away from the now-closed section they'd come from.

Jack jumped up, grabbing her bag off the floor. Nick's hand around her wrist jerked her forward, and all three of them were racing down the corridor. Behind them, loud thunderous slams followed. That, combined with the constant tremble in the walls, informed Jack that the trap was following them. She heard a distinct snapping sound as well, and doubted there was much left of their new friend besides dust.

She kidded around a quick corner, slamming into the wall and shoving back off of it to propel herself into the door that appeared in front of her. The boys both hit the wood hard – Nick immediately scrabbling at the handle, to no avail. She let her shoulder fall and bull rushed forward, throwing her weight hard against the wood. It buckled beneath her, and the whole thing lurched forward. The hinges made a harsh scraping sound as they busted, but Jack couldn't hear any more slamming. The walls were still shaking, and she leaned up on her shoulders from were they'd all hit the ground and looked the way they came. The walls were pulling back apart slowly, and the hallway revealed itself to them once more.

"Jesus," Nick panted.

"—traps," Chris mumbled.

"How about we watch where we step?" Nick glared at Chris.

"Don't pretend you would've magically avoided the trap, Nick," Jack sat up with a groan. Her shoulder would definitely be bruised by the morning. She rolled it experimentally, getting to her feet and taking stock of the room.

It looked almost like some kind of chapel. Rows of benches lined the large room facing an alter. Though the brownish-red stain that smeared across the top and dipped down the edges suggested the nature of it was less well-intentioned than she hoped. There were skeletons in this room, too. Two of them.

One sat on a bench and faced the alter, like he'd gone to church and just never left. The other sprawled across the floor near the base of the stone platform. That one had its own stain.

"Hey," Chris said, "last time you guys were in a church—"

"Give it a rest, Vail." Nick moved toward the body on the benches, so Jack headed to check the other one.

She kneeled down, pulling her gloves out of her bag and putting them on before she let herself touch anything on the body. You can never be too careful with that kind of thing. Now that she was looking, Jack estimated that the body was actually a bit newer than the one they'd seen in the hallway. There was still more flesh on the bones, not paper thin but well past the beginning stages of decomposition. Maybe a year old, at most, but she was willing to bet that Mr. Greasy only sent them in _after_ having checked it out with his guys first. Maybe he lost one.

She searched through his clothes for any kind of identification, and Chris came up beside her.

"You ok?" He asked. She spared him a quick glance before she nodded and went continued rifling through the dead man's pockets. "It's just—how'd you know about the trap?"

"What?" She took her hands out of the empty jacket. There was nothing on the body. "I didn't."

"You were trying to warn us about something, Jack." Chris whispered, looking over his shoulder at Nick before leaning in closer to her and speaking under his breath. "I know Nick doesn't like talking about it, but I'm not willing to ignore when you get your, you know, _feelings._ "

"My feelings."

"You know what I mean!" He whined a bit, but Jack could tell he wasn't about to let it go.

She sighed, "Yeah, ok. I didn't know about the trap, though. I just felt…watched."

Chris frowned, "From the skeleton?"

"No, I don't think so. I don't know what it was, but it didn't feel nice."

He hummed, "Alright. Just," he made eye contact with her, "keep me in the loop?" She nodded. "Cool, cool. Watched. Not worrying at all. Find anything on him?"

"Nothing useful." She stood again, stretching her legs. Her knees cracked when she fully straightened them. "He's not as old as skin and bones from the hallway, but he doesn't have much on him. Just from his clothes, I'd say he was a local that got paid to come check out the cave-in. Or maybe he caused the cave-in. One of the guys with fireworks? Did Nick say what happened to all of them?" Chris shook his head. "Whatever the case, he's got a pretty wicked cut across his throat."

Chris's eyebrows raised, and he started looking over the body more closely, but Jack focused on the alter. The same symbol, the one that had been drawn over the amulet in the journal, was impressed deeply into the top of the stone.

"Nick." She called him over, waving her hand to the alter. "Check this out."

He made his way over, "Oh. Wait—oh _shit._ "

"Yep." She clicked her tongue. "I was right, then. Was hoping I wasn't."

"What?" Chris joined them. "What is it now?"

She waved a hand over the symbol, "Recognize it?"

"Uh." He rubbed his chin. "Yeah? Looks like the one from the journal, right?"

"Yeah, but apart from that." He gave her a blank stare. "Oh right, you were dead."

"' _Oh right, you were dead._ '" He mocked, "Did you forget? Cause I sure haven't. And what does that have to do with the sym—please tell me this isn't more ancient Egyptian mummy shit."

"Fortunately, no." Nick started looking over the sides of the alter, brushing his hands along the stone looking for some hidden catch. "Unfortunately, it may be worse."

"Ok," Jack huffed, "let's not be dramatic."

"They tried to _kill_ me. When they thought I was you—or had what you had. You know what I mean!" Nick threw his hands in the air in frustration. "They're not better than Ahmanet."

"They didn't try to raise an evil god to rule the world with the intent of killing countless innocent people in the process."

"They were going to dissect me after they killed me."

" _After_."

"How about we let Chris know what's going on." Chris walked between them, and they moved to accommodate him. "'Cause I really hate it when you guys do this."

"It's not ancient Egyptian mummy shit. It's Prodigium shit."

"Oh." Chris looked vaguely sick. "Oh, that's bad. That's bad, right?"

 **OOOOO**

 **Been a while. Not dead yet. I graduated and have been dealing with a lot of health problems recently, but this fic is almost cathartic to write, so I might keep up a bit with it. Let me know how you feel about it so far. There's a lot more to come.**


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